TUE POD @SpenceChecketts on #NBAAllStar, Runnin' Utes/local CBB, NCAA $$$ latest + more

All right, what's going on?

Drivetime Tuesday afternoon, about eleven minutes past the hour of two o'clock. It was snowing earlier today, then we had a little sunshine and now it's settled a little cloudy, about forty two degrees here in downtown Salt Lake City, Utah. A lot of snow over the weekend up in the mountains. Good for our resorts and good for the folks that travel out to Utah to do a little skiing this

Spence check, it's beyond the mic.

That's Porter Larsen behind the glass jam Packed Tuesday Show. Since we were off yesterday, we'll do a little all star stuff. We're gonna talk about it, I mean, ultimately talked about.

It during Crosstock with Sean today.

I don't know how you fix a product when the people involved in said product don't seem to give a rip about showing up for their job. Whether you play it in Europe, whether you play it in Utah, whether you play it in the Bay Area. It's just continued to manifest itself as something that the league even look at doing away with. I know that sounds wild, but

Most teams are in that same space.

I would imagine we're gonna see a lot of players resting in order to lose as many games as possible down the stretch. And so we'll do some Jazz today, We'll do some NBA basketball today, we'll do some All Star stuff as well. The Four Nations face off, by far was the most exciting in thralling sport events that I watched all weekend long, and the final is going to be a rematch of US and Canada in Boston, which is a great hockey city, and so we do have some local boys. Ali Mata had the game ted

Excuse me, after they beat West Virginia in Provo.

They beat Case State on Saturday, and they are firmly entrenched as of now right in the NCAA tournament picture. So we'll get to some of that. Utah State was on the road since you and I last spoke. They lost to New Mexico again. New Mexico is the first place team now in the Mountain West Conference by a couple of games over the Aggies. It is franchised tag day. In Pro football, a lot of attention on the Cincinnati Bengals,

So unpack some of that on the show today.

We have some good college football guests in addition to some NBA and some you know, some college basketball as well. And oh, by the way, the Genesis Invitational over the weekend, our guy Tony Fenow takes on McCool seven hundred and thirty six k for finishing fifth. And the world of pro golf starting to get really interesting as well. You can watch them pro golfers hit on a simulator tonight, including one Eldrick tiger Woods. But happy to see Tony off to a great star. We saw the Daytona five

It's the real thing.

Do some college football, excuse me, some college basketball, then some hockey with Roxy today. He's a good friend of the show. Got to know him during the PAC twelve years, so he'll stop by today. Tim McMahon, NBA Daily Assists Style. Tim was not present in the Bay Area for him.

Yeah, I mean you mentioned the All Star Game, and that was because of what it is and what it historically is is what kind of had my antenna.

But it was, you know, it was.

It was not necessarily overwhelming when it comes to the All Star weekend. I thought there were some good moments on Saturday. I think what they tried. I'm glad they're trying things, I guess on Sunday night as far as the actual All Star Game goes. But adding non All Stars to the game and then adding a bunch of breaks with YouTube stars and Kevin Hart is not going to fix the All Star Game. Hot take there, I guess.

Is the right way to approach it.

So we'll get to some of that stuff on the show today. Again, it is Franchise Tag Day in the NFL. Any pro football news that comes our way, we will bring it to you. Our first guests right out of the gates will be Roxy burn Steam. But before we get to Roxy, Curtis of our good friends at Prize Picks.

On a Tuesday, it's time now for your opening tip.

All right, shout out to Prize Picks, the best place to get a real money sports action. With over ten million members and billions of dollars in awarded winnings, Prize Picks has made daily fantasy sports accessible to all. You just pick more or less on at least two players for a shot to win up to one thousand times your cash. You can run your game all season long on Prize Picks. You can now win up to one

Bet does not matter if you win the bet.

Just sign up today, use that promo code ESPN seven hundred and get a free fifty bucks on us courteys of our good friends at Prize Picks. All Right, we're gonna bring in Roxy Bernstein here coming up in just a little bit. But before we get to Roxy, we'll do a little All Star stuff. Okay, we're not going to do a ton today. Excuse me, ran out of cough drops. Wrong day to do that. Look, the conversation for far too long after NBA All Star weekend is okay,

It was a lot of fun. I had some family in town.

I was able to take my son to a bunch of things and say hi to a lot of old friends that I hadn't seen for quite some time. When it's in your city, it hits a little differently. Jazz had an All Star that year. It was lowry marketing, but watching it on television hasn't been intriguing and interesting if we're honest, probably for fifteen years or so, and maybe even longer than that. I mean, the last really fun close All Star game I can remember.

Might have been in two thousand and one.

Now, I'm not going to be the old guy that yells at you to get off my lawn all day about this. But here's the right format. Okay, if you want to solve this thing, here's the right format. It's the same format it's always been with the players caring about the product. That's the there's your solution, Adam Silver, Play a regular All Star game and make sure your players care about it. That's the format. That's the solution. Here's the rub. They don't and they're not going to start.

Like we need do we really need.

Twenty minutes of freaking Kevin Hart's first of all, I don't need twenty minutes of Kevin Hart stand up ever. You know, there are all there are these things that occasionally remind me that this generation up behind me, like people in the early thirties, I don't relate to you at all. One of them's Pete Davidson, Like I've never Pete Davidson has never said one thing that I think is funny. I've never seen him on an SNL skit

I don't think he's witty.

I don't think he's funny, Like congrats on the dating scene, bro, but like, get off my television. It's annoying. And I don't get Kevin Hart. I just don't. I respect the grind. That dude works as hard as anybody in any industry. I respect it. I just don't think he's funny. I don't think he's a funny stand up comic. I think he's okay in movies here or there, and I think he did a pretty good job, like m seeing that Brady Roast thing. But Kevin Hart with a microphone makes

Back in the day.

We had one of the best ones here in ninety three when John and Carl won co MVPs. And yes, there were times back in the day where the first you know, a couple of quarters, maybe they're not going all that hard, but you go back and watch all of those games down the stretch, those dudes were trying to win and they were trying to kill each other.

Plane on this.

The problem ultimately with All Star weekend, the problem ultimately with NBA regular season basketball. And you can draw a straight line between where we're at now and the time when the players were able to collectively bargain to receive and let me be clear, their fair share of basketball related income. For years, the scales were very, very tipped in the favor into the favor of the owners period,

Right, So I am for this shift that happened.

I feel the same way about player compensation in the pros as I do about the player compensation in college. For years and years and years, it was highly unfair. The college athletes were the only people in our country that did not have the same basic economic rights as the rest of us.

That's been rectified.

Has it affected the I don't think so as of now on a massive level, But as we move forward, people are really nervous. And for years and years and years, it was kind of odd as the NBA started to rise and TV deals started to go through the roof, and you know, it was Magic and Bird. That was kind of the early thing with the Lakers and the Celtics.

It's not all on the players.

Okay, we heard Zion Williamson a couple of weeks ago when he was asked about not playing back to backs for a kid that's still in his twenties. He's like, it's not my call, it's the team. So it's not all on the players, but this All Star weekend to me was a microcosm of a bigger issue with the product of pro basketball. Now, as I reference, they're about

Now. Occasionally we hear the quiet part out loud.

Jason Kidd a couple of years ago after the MAVs lost in the playoffs to the media and the fans, You guys don't get it.

We are simply millionaires cheering for each other. And when you hear it.

Out loud, you're like, oh, dude.

Okay, Well, I guess I guess there's the motivation.

I guess that's their attitude. Kevin Durant saying, you guys don't get it. Nobody ever talks about the fans nobody ever gives a rip about the fans. So look, I am a fan of pro basketball. I've been around in my entire life. I've covered it now twenty years, and covered the Jazz and worked over there for a long time.

I will continue to cover the league.

And I do believe playoff basketball is awesome, because basketball is awesome when the best players in the world play and they care.

But if you don't care, we don't care.

I was watching this show, I think it was Hulu last week, and it had the biggest beefs in celebrity I think it was the nineties, the biggest beef between celebrities and the nineties, right, and they're going back and forth, you know, a lot of Tupac Biggie, you know, and they were ranking them, you know, they're ranking them, and for some reason they completely decided to ignore the Roxy Bernstein Courtney Cox beef.

I thought it was malfeasance on their part. Interesting, was this to see an end thing? Was it the nineties documentary or whatever?

It was the nineties, like, biggest beefs between celebrities and the nineties, And for my money, I don't know that there's a bigger beef between, you know, than between our next guest, Roxy Burns steaming the Great Corney Cox Roxy.

Happy Tuesday, sir.

How are you, Spence? I just want to know with Vanilla Ice and Sugar Knight on there was that part of the beef it was not.

But Shug I think was featured I think three or four times, which is not surprising at all.

How you been, my friend?

I'm good, you know, busy. It's getting the real grind of the season. But I'm good, you know, bouncing around doing what I do.

There you go, there, you go? All right?

Right off the top. Is there any way to fix the NBA All Star Game?

I don't know, to be honest with you, right, and there is there a way to duplicate what the NHL slash hockey has done. Considering how great this four nation's face off has been and the anticipation that a lot of people have for Thursday night with the final between US and Canada, I mean, is there a way to generate internationally? And will they care enough? That's the other thing, And I'm not exactly sure, Spence, what you can do to make the NBA players care. They tried to do

Yeah, and we'll get talking in a moment, because the Four Nations Canada US game, by far was the dopest thing I watched all weekend. So we'll get to that in a moment. But I don't know that the NBA at this point roxy has any other choice than just to admit what we're all seeing, and that is nobody gives a rip about this. It is simply a celebration of the league because and I don't want to be the old man yelling at a cloud about this, but you remember, once upon a time that was the greatest.

Pickup game in the history of everything.

When the best players in the world cared about playing in that game and wanted to beat each other, there was nothing better.

And now, honestly, they's just nothing worse.

Because to your point, I don't care if you play it in the Bay, I don't care if you play it in Salt Lake. I don't care if it's US versus International, East versus West. These dudes can't even be bothered to play hard for a for a large portion and then Lebron shows up and he's like, yeah, I'm out, just so you know, like I'm just not even participating.

I think at this point the league just needs.

To admit that they're seeing what we're seeing and it's just unwatchable.

And then that's just kind of the deal now.

You know.

And look, I had an issue with Lebron did this weekend you take the spot from somebody else that could be there and made himself the center of attention in a lot of ways that all of a sudden dropping it on everybody. I am not playing that. That's the frustrating thing I had with with what Lebron did. But the NBA, it's, look, I don't want to be this gut off my long guy. But when we were growing up, Spence, Michael Jordan cared right when he wanted to be involved.

Last thing on this. And look, we both work in media and I do some TV. You do a lot of TV and call a lot of games, and so I understand, and I'm a grown up. So this is a front facing, revenue generating product, and you have television partners that you need to take care of. But if I'm a player and I play hard and I get a win and we advance on and then you tell me that I have to sit down and listen to Kevin Hart make fun of Shaq's hat for thirty minutes

What happens? You get tight?

Like they even interviewed Yokitch and they're like, hey, what have you done during the break? He's like, I tightened up, you know, like if you're trying to avoid injury the format itself while they're force feeding us Kevin Hart I thought was horribly misguided.

They're with you that when you play all right, you want to keep going. You don't want to sit because and as you alluded to, you get stiff and you make yourself susceptible to an injury. You want to keep going, Like, okay, could you set up two courts? I don't know what you could do if you're going to try to do a format like this and keep guys going, oh, we got next, right, That's the format that they used is not viewer friendly and even a friendly to that regard,

Well, somebody didn't watch jaseus for that and the skill challenge in the MLS All Star Game a year ago apparently rock so that you tuned out on that one.

Huh Sorry, I I am not up with my MLS.

My bad, All good, All good, All right, let's move over to hockey.

And before we talk about what we saw last week and what we could see on Thursday. We are a new hockey market, so give us a little you know, context and maybe even a history lesson US Canada hockey is among the best rivalries in all of sport, period, but help us understand just how how intense this rivalry has been before we talk about what's in front of us.

Now, Hello, did you drop? He's still there? But Roxy, Roxy? Are you there? Hello? Check one?

Two?

All right, we'll try to get Roxy back. Four nations face off coming up on Thursday. That will be the final US Canada. It's going to be played in Boston. Which is a great hockey city. After the US was able to be cam a two to one in an event that saw three fights in the first nine minutes. So I thought that was one of, if not the most entertaining products all weekend long. At its peak, five

JT.

Miller fought a dude that's twice his size. But of course the Kachuck brothers started things off. So let's get Roxy Bernstein back on Roxy. Unfortunately, we didn't hear any of your answers, so I'll just ask it in a very short way, give us a little bit of context as to why US Canada in hockey is so intense.

Well, that was the best thing I was said all day, Spence clearly.

Oh damn it, Okay, your best.

You know.

It's funny because of the international stage international hockey, the it was more Canada Russia when you go back some years and it's only within the last I don't know, twenty years or so, maybe twenty five years, that the US is really surged and this rivalry is heated up

Ultimately, I just was chuckling when I was listening to some of the coverage earlier today because they were talking about some of the players that are heard on both sides, and there was the sound by sound bite where I think it was Brady Kachuck and may have been Matthew, one of the Kachuck brothers, was asked like, hey, you guys are you know, you had to sit for the portion of the game against I think it was Sweden, and there are rumors about you guys being banged up

There's no doubt.

And it's one of the things roxy not to go back to the NBA bashing, but I love pro basketball and.

I'm mad at it right now.

I just I love that hockey players will just show up because and look, this obviously means a lot more than a exhibition game. So I'm not going back to Lebron entirely, but it's one of the things that I've always loved about hockey players. They're they're they're real tough guys, and they care about competing. They care about showing up and playing because it makes the product better obviously.

And that's the mentality, and that's the hockey mentality. If you go back that you're gonna play, if you can blace up your skates, you're gonna go out there and play. And I know so the NHL teams are obviously a little nervous about it when they see, for example, Charlie McAvoy and the injury that he's dealing with right now. Matthew Kuchuk was scratched doing a little lower body injury from yesterday's game. Brady Kulchuck then they for precautionary reasons,

Before we move off the hockey stuff, and you know, you've got a game to call tonight, so I want to do some college basketball with you. In a moment, I just wanted to kick the tires on where we find ourselves year one with the Utah Hockey Club. They are right now as my computer refreshes, there's six points behind the Canucks and a full eleven points behind the Avs for the wild card. What a peg like won't go away? It's wild what the Jets have done this year.

Yeah, you have Calgary lodge in there in between, and some of the teams have dropped off, like, for example, Okay, Saint Louis is a couple points behind Utah. The Seattle Kraken to me, have been a major disappointment. They firmly expected to be in the playoff race, but they're well out of it right now. Is there are eleven points behind the Canucks. Nashville has been another huge disappointment in

And the injuries that Utah has dealt with on the.

Blue line, Connor Ingram missed a good chunk of time when he was away from the team. The injuries even up front that that they've had to deal with, that's been a concern. But they've tried to piece it together here and set themselves up to make a run. They're in this thing and they're gonna have an opportunity now. They're gonna have to help themselves out. There's been certainly

All right, before we end with a thought on BYU and their basketball program, let's give a little love to Craig Smith and the Utah you two over the weekend was able to get two home wins against the two Kansas teams. They beat the number seven team team in the country, Kansas, who I.

Don't know, man, I don't know.

You know, the Jayhawks I believe were preseason top two or three, maybe even preseason one. And that group does not look like a connected group to me at all.

But a good win for the Utes.

They were an underdog and then kse State, who had won six straight prior to their trip to Provo. You know, that was a really good basketball game and the best thing that I saw, in my opinion, roxy those two games. That I really haven't seen much of from Utah this year is their ability to close. You know, they were in the game it was seventy two to seventy two at Cincinnati. Then since he ended on like a thirteen

They had some moments, but.

The closing stretches have been difficult because they do not have a ball in hand, lead guard, decision maker that has the ability to make dynamic things happen like they did a year ago with Davon Smith. But with five games left, you know, you look at the rest of the schedule, they're gonna have to pull off some upsets, but they might be a double digit win team in conference. In the Big Twelve. They're seven and eight with five

This was a big weekend I think for him and the program to get those wins, and it is a little more difficult for them to get things done offensively They're a team that has to do it by committee. Yes, Gate Madison's your volume shooter and your go to guy would need a big bucket, as he was with huge shots against both Kansas and Casetate last night. But it's a team that shares the ball that they average eighteen assists per game, their top ten in the country and

So Kevin Young has a litany of talent at his disposal. He's got two potential well one lottery pick with Jegor Demon and then a lot of people think Kennon Catching's is the first round player. So there's some you know, some seven figure players on this roster according to a lot of reports, and what I've been told and started off, you know, not great as far as what we were expecting,

And this is an enormous game because the winner of tonight's game between KU and BYU will have the inside track at the five seed because you'll have the only matchup between the two teams this year, so you'll have the tiebreaker, and then can you make a push to get into the top four, which would be a huge boost. You get a buy into the quarterfinals if you could do that. And so for BYU, they've been dominated a

All right, before I say you lose a college football question, because for the second time in four months, I guess I'll say conference leaders from the SEC and the Big ten are meeting in person to discuss common ground, is what I'm reading during a critical decision making period in college athletics. So the meetings are talking about the House versus nca A and future governance and all that stuff.

Uh?

Yeah, concerns me.

And because it's just so unstable the landscape of college athletics right now. And that's that's the frustrating and kind of unnerving thing about this whole movement that we're seeing. And look, the SEC is still ticked off that Alabama didn't get in right. There's no doubt that on selection day when they saw Alabama left out, which I do believe was the right move, even though potentially they were the better team. But I thought that SMU had earned it and deserved to be in the playoff for what

Yeah, the danger, you know, in what is being proposed is if you dilute the regular season in college football, you are taking away what makes it special. You have to games have to matter, rocky. You can't just automate like, sorry, Bama, don't lose four times.

Like that's like you can't.

Minimize or dilute the regular season in college football, or in my opinion, you're taking away what makes it so special.

Championships should matter and that's what the committee valued, and I applaud them for that because SMU was the Big Twelve champ, but they didn't win in the Big Twelve championship game, so they but I think they deserved it because of what they accomplished in the season. And that's what the framework they laid out before the season was that if you're a conference champ, that should be a significant thing to add to your resume as far as what the committee will look at. And that's what they

Roxy, you're the man.

Enjoy that cougartail tonight in Provo and have a great call.

Okay.

Oh, it's never a BYU game if you don't.

Have a cougartail right, no doubt, no doubt.

If you finish the whole thing, I'd be wildly impressed. It's very unhealthy.

I won't Okay, I won't, and I won't even even try to. Okay, I'm just a couple bites guy. Just need a little little bit of a sugar boost before the game.

Moderation and all things Roxy, including moderation. By the way, my friends, have a great call.

Okay, any time, fans, thanks.

For having me.

I had the great Roxy Bernstein.

He'll be on the call that I be yu welcomes in Kansas down to provo. That game is on ESPN, It's at seven o'clock. Utah was able to take care of the Hawks here at the Huntsman Center over the weekend.

All right, before we catch a break, we.

Want to tell you about my friends at Ogden Clinic Hadley Dermatology.

Now here's the deal.

If you're like me, once this weather finally turns for good, you'll be outside all the time. You'll be playing golf all the time. You'll be hiking all the time. You'll be in the sunshine a ton.

Now. The reason I bring that up is I did not.

Know this until we started working with our friends at Augden Clinic Hadley Dermatology. We lead the country per capita in skin cancer diagnoses. I did not know that. It makes sense. We live in the desert. It gets very hot here. So Ogden Clinic Hadley Dermatology they're offering you a chance to get a free skin consultation, just to kind of make sure you're good.

Now.

I've known Jason and Michael for years and they're good friends of mine. And every year they say, look, we know you're out golfing a ton, just come in let's check it out.

Make sure you're okay.

We're going to do a comprehensive check head to toe because early detection can save your life. Now if you have not been checked recently or ever, quite frankly and other some of you out there and you're thinking yourself, man, I'm in the sun a lot. Take advantage of this because it saves you a grip of money and then you know exactly what sort of hand you've been dealt. They're also offering twenty five percent off of laser treatments.

Next on the drive, Tim McMahon dropping dimes for your NBA daily assists.

Van McMahon, Van Man that is duding all the land, Texas flood as, thickets, Mudy's Man, Banmavanman, then.

Man Playoff push for the Utah Jazz gets back in action coming up on Thursday. Oklahoma State, excuse me, Oklahoma City. Obviously, college basketball and the mine we'll get back to some college.

Ups are the big one tonight.

But let's do a little jazz mostly just big picture NBA topics with our guy Tim McMahon, fresh off vacation on this Tuesday afternoon, Tim, how's your time off?

Brother? Not long enough, but welcome. Just wish it lasted a little bit longer.

For sure.

Did you consume any of the festivities in the Bay Area over the weekend.

I will be honest. I've seen a couple little clips on social media, but I watched zero seconds of All Star Weekend Live.

Good for you, but we do have to do the media thing where you and I talk about what a horrible product it is and how we're going.

To fix the thing.

So here, here's where I'm at with it. There's no fixing it. They've tried everything. I like the US versus international idea, but hey, we've seen it before. I don't care if it's played in Russia or California or Europe or wherever it's.

The proof is in.

These guys don't give a rip, and I don't think there's any way to fix that. So for me, it's just kind of maybe time for the league to admit that this is the deal. It's a non serious celebration of the National Basketball Association and that's it.

Okay, Like, what d damn do I mean? Does anybody think the Pro Bowls like some kind of serious football game. I mean, I guess, I mean playing more, but like, you know, are they throwing brushback pitches in the in Baseball's All Star Game? Is Pete Rose still running over the catcher? Like? I mean, what do we do? It's an All Star game? You know, of course, the silly exhibition. I don't know why the NBA keeps on allowing this

Is there a format that you actually think is good? This is what I said earlier, Like, my preferred format is the All Star Game with players who play hard like we used to have.

That's my preferred all That's my preferred format.

And look, it ain't like every All Star Game has been some kind of classic. I mean, there were forty point blowouts, but Michael Jordan's on the wrong end of so let's not you know, I think one we kind of need to get over this good old days syndrome thing to a certain agree. But yeah, East versus West totally fine, USA versus International, Okay, interest in flavor fine, don't give me some first of forty tournament. Hold on,

Yep, yep.

And uh, you know that's kind of the deal. That's kind of where we've landed today. And there's some fun moments here or there. Is there anything that simply an experience or Kyante George can do for him as far as being able to play on Sunday in that format.

Is there is there anything tangible?

He was the only local rep you know, is there anything he can take from simply being part of the experience.

I am concerned you're gonna pull some sort of muscle at that reach. I don't I'm not sure.

You want to talk about Johnny juz Ang's pr tim, Let's do that.

I mean, listen, it can't be a negative for Kante George like to be me, you know, I don't know what how did he spend his all Stra weekend with? You know, did he try to pick the brains of guys who are uh, you know, who have been in that game over and over again. Maybe there's some benefit there, you know, But more did he go to a bunch of parties and have a good time, like the Master Jordan people, a good all Star we can did? And if that's the case, they're putting wrong with that either.

So there's not the second half of the season entirely. Most teams have, you know, have about thirty games left a little bit less than that. But with the calendar, it's kind of halfway home for teams that are playing for the postseason. And of course the big story just continues to be the Dallas deal with the Lakers and how the Lakers are gonna look. It's kind of interesting because the Jazz have actually been the team that the Lakers have played twice since the deal went down, and

Well, I think the biggest question about that is, like, is Luca going to be full speed? Does he still need time to be ramped up after you know, a month and a half or so off with that cast string. I mean, the two games against the Jazz were mega height, preseason type of games for Luca. You know, like he's on a twenty four minute limit and you know, obviously he's trying to get his rhythm and so you know, I don't know when we will see like full blast

You were one of the first guests that we had to kind of point out, like, hey, just keep an eye on Houston. You know, I don't know what it means, but just keep an eye on what they've been doing. And you know, Van Vlietz missed some time, and you can tell that they really miss him in crunch situations when they're trying to close out games. But they have kind of come back down to earth, losing seven of their last ten. And I do have concerns simply about

Well, I think you point out Van's lead is a smart observation, and I don't think I said that very often about.

You, you know, sun shine on dogs, but every once in a while with that situation here.

But look, he's like, there's a reason they took such a leak when they brought in him and Dylan Brooks, but especially Van Vleet. He's the captain, He's the organizer, you know, he's he's the conductor, and his impact goes away beyid like they look at his shooting, steady shot the ball. Well, he's the one who keeps everybody kind of you know, rolling in the same direction, and they definitely need him to have any kind of a chance to do playoff damage. But look, the Rockets have punched

Here's how I'll phrase this question, what sort of team? Because I've listened to a bunch over the weekend of of you know, some mental gymnastics to try to make the West as interesting as possible from a lot of people who cover the league. But then they land the plane like, okay, see is impossible. So it's kind of an exercising futility. I still think if Jamal's gonna Jamal Murray's gonna play like this, You've got to talk about the Nuggets because Jokich is Jokics.

We talked about that last week.

What type of team we'll give Oka see the biggest issues come playoff time, like what is their achilles heel if they have one?

Well, and you know, they did a great job of addressing their achilles heels over the off season. One was they could get bullied, they could get pushed around. They went out and paid Isaiah Hartstein a whole lot of money in free agencies to have the option of playing big. Now chet Holman has just gotten back. Him and Heart's not have played I don't know what is it, three

Yeah, and I think that's the answer.

I mean, if I take Okay, so you off the table, I still I mean, from what I've seen, I've been so incredibly impressed with the Thunder that I probably would pick them in seven games right now over the Nuggets. But at this point, I think Denver's probably the only other team that I would put in the same category. But let me ask you about the Timberwolves, because they've been better as of late, and obviously around here everybody keeps their eye on the Timberwolves. At one point, it's like, wait,

Improved play? Sure, you know Randall has been out, which is right, you know, interesting, kind draw your own conclusions there. I just I can't see the Wolves being a real bona fide contender, and I think that does go back to the trade where they moved Carl Anthony Towns. You know, they had a Western Conference finals team and they took away the second best player on that team, and not just sevend best player. But like the Wolves, one of their huge advantages last year is that they were huge.

Who'd you have in the Timmy Bontem's good time, Timmy Bontem stropol?

Who do you think the MVP is this year? And why.

We'll put it this way. A lot of Nuggets fans are mad ato right now, and I think a lot of Serbians are cussing at me. I've already I've been getting cussed at the Slovenian recently for doing things like reporting the reasoning that the Mavericks made the most shocked in trading NBA history, And now Serbians are out of me. And listen, there's not a single thing I could or would say to tell you why Joker is not deserving of winning his four straight MVP. Like the guy's case

Dam It's one thing to have snot knows losers who use the Internet to feel brave coming at you. I don't think you want to get sideways with serbians, bro, That's just little piece of advice.

Listen, man, I've been over to the Balkans, beautiful land over there. I might not be a return of the anytime soon.

Okay, all right, fair enough, fair enough. Hey, let's before I say you loose. Let's move over now to the latest with the MAVs and what this entire citizens. You're the guy that's been on this and we've used your reporting on the show to color the context of the conversations.

Just because it's been.

A week, I mean, it seems like they've got a ton of injury issues, So the jury's going to be out as far as whether or not they'll be able to do anything special this year, because they still have a lot of talent. We've been reminded what Kyrie looks like when he's when he's engaged in playing basketball. So just the latest with the Dallas Mavericks, and now you think the rest of the season plays out after making one of the wildest deals in the history of pro sports.

Yeah, well he's here, and say, if they get healthy, the simple fact is they're not going to be healthy, probably not for the rest of the regular season. Daniel Gafford has a Grade three sprain of his MCL, probably at the rest of the regular season. There's no certainly that Derek Olively, the second who has a stress faction his right ankle, is available for the rest of the

Yeah, well said, I can't wait for Kyanta to come back and average thirty five down the stretch and completely give it all the credit to his experience in the Rising Stars situation over the weekend, and then you and I will have the conversation about exactly what that meant for young Kyante. George that's my prediction for the rest of the year for Jazz.

Kyanti is not going to average thirty five minutes, much less thirty five points. So I would say that my advice to Kiante George would be you better start playing as hard as it can defensively and locking into details if you ever want to take your starting job back from Isaiah Callier, who you know right now, Will Hardy is very happy with one of those guys and it's not Kiante George.

I will stretch one more time to simply ask you this, what's the most interesting story about the Jazz over the final twenty eight games of the year.

I mean, I think like there's the obvious answer, and it's the one that's not any fun to follow until the Night of the Water, you know, Like listen, there's just like Cooper Flag has a chance to be a generational type of talent. This whole season is about maximizing your chance to get that guy. And if it's not him, there's some other really good players at the top of

That was bravo.

In fact, I should stand out of my chair and start clapping because you made the final twenty eight games this season interesting, Tim, and we didn't even have to stretch.

So well done, my friend.

He's fine. I'll listen. Rebuilding's not fun, but in a lot of senses it ain't complicated. Accumulated assets, hopeful lottery luck and hope some of the young guys to develop.

Well said, all right, welcome back from VAK. I appreciate the time and we'll get you back on soon.

Text him, all right, appreciate your brother.

Tim McMahon covers the It covers the NBA. I should say for ESPN when the Jazz are interesting. He's at her quite a bit and covers the jazz. He's kind of their jazz guy on the National Beats. Joins the Shawn a weekly basis and has for five and a half years now at ESPN. Underscore McMahon is where you find him. That's brought to you today by my good friends at Prize Picks, which is the best place to

It's very easy.

All you do is pick more or less on at least two players for shot to up to one thousand times your cash. You can run your game all season long on Prize Picks. You can win up to one thousand times your money on Prize Picks with as little as two correct picks.

Very easy to do.

It's the best way to get action on sports and more than thirty states including California, Texas, Georgia, and Florida. Prize Picks now offers MasterCard for quick and easy deposits into your account this sports season. So sign up today and get fifty dollars instantly when you just play five dollars. You don't even need to win to receive the fifty dollars bonus that's guaranteed when you use that promo code.

Accidentally. Well, no, look, I like counting Crows. I'm not saying I don't.

I've seen Counting Crows in concert four times Jones Beach shout Out Northeast.

But it's almost like Dave.

I don't listen to Dave as much as I used to, but the algorithm is like, hey, you listened to this quite a bit once upon a time, so boom, whenever I put on like a random Spotify playlist, I'm fed a little more Counting Crows than I would.

Like his I'm saying, don't take this the wrong way.

Okay, what you know, don't start out like that now now I'm on guard.

Now you are on guard. You're gonna say this, I should know you better.

Well, that's like saying, with all due respect, yeah, you know you're not wrong.

I'll try not to take this the wrong way, but go ahead.

How how well do you think some of your like favorite nineties I'll even throw eighties music in the early two thousands, how well do you think it ages even for your taste?

If we can narrow it down.

There, really fair question, and the answer is a combination of sorts.

What did I pull up the other day?

Oh, Interstate Love song, this Stone Temple Pilot song Okay, randomly popped up on a mix.

I'm like, oh, I love this song.

I haven't heard it for a while, so I put on You know how in Spotify you can you're listening to a song, you can go to radio station then it'll pip play and it played a grip of like nineties one hit wonders now stp not one hit wonders.

But there were some.

Really really bad songs that popped up that honestly two call pop pukashell dyed blonde hair Spence jammed out too back in the mid to late nineties. So some of it has not aged well, I will admit that, but I think a lot of it has. But I'm you know, hip hop, nineties hip hop the best period, end of story. And a lot of the alternate you know, the alt rock bands like r Em I think Dave was back in the day, they've they've aged pretty well.

Some of it not so much though, So I understand where you're going.

Just a question, because yeah, like like you mine's a little later, right, like some of the early two thousands. I want to call it like alt or grunt rock that I listened to. I hear it now and I'm like, oh oh, just like a cringing and I know that twelve thirteen year old me was just rocking out to that at one point.

You know what, I'm going to take some flak if any of my friends are listening to this. Alison Chains has an aged very well and I went through like a big like were they good?

Yes?

Oh yes, and they do have some The lead singer died of a heroin overdose.

I believe, uh luke something rest in peace.

They had a moment where I was like all in on Alison Chains, and uh, you know, I think it's all stay away.

Alison Chains is a good is a good song, but I kind.

Of did a little bit of a deep dive and not great, not great, not gonna lie.

So your question is a fair one. Here here's a question for you.

I stay away alis In Chains in fact play that coming up next.

It's very good. I was thinking about this over the leak.

They have a good album, though, like, does als and Chains actually have a good album? Is Dirt probably their biggest album I was.

I think so.

I think it probably is Dirt No Alison Chains, Yeah, Dirt was there. Jarra Flies nineteen ninety four good album, Okay, but I was sixteen.

Go listen to that whole album. That's what I want you to do.

Yeah, I think you might be correct, because, yeah, you know what, Jarra Flies was their best album. Give me a give me an example of an artist who you should like on paper but you just don't.

Does that make sense? I'll give you one for me. Oh Aar, who's that?

It's this corny note. You know, they're from Maryland, They're from the DMV area, and they're it's like if Dave Matthews band could be even cornier. Oar was like trying to capitalize on the pop you know, the popular uh you know, the explosion of the Dave Matthews band. Oar was trying to kind of be like the next Dave type band on paper. I should very much like them, and I very much do not, and I've tried hard.

Well, I wasn't say you always think I like Zach Bryan.

Oh yeah, I mean cause I equate him to actual country music.

I think it's because he's you know, he's slower acoustic usually, and listen, I think he's fairly talent. I just I am in more of My musical inclination is always lyrical. And when I listened to him, I don't know, it just doesn't resonate or I don't believe him, one of the two. And that's that's kind of where it comes with.

Lack of authenticity. Yeah, all right, well I got you.

Which is fine. Like, listen, a majority of these people are playing a character, but maybe with him, it's just not resonating.

Did you watch any of the SNL fifty stuff over the weekend.

I saw some clips, which is how I intake SNL.

Now that's how your generation takes in everything, just the clips.

Probably the NBA you can talk about one.

Hundred percent, And we talked about this earlier. Do you remember, Actually I have not talked to you about this because you're a resident lebron apologist. Probably your boy shows up and he's like, no thanks, right, which is such a bad look. But do you remember that story about because this really if you missed it from earlier, I talked about this during Crosstalk with Sean. If you want the problem with the end reduced down to one anecdote, this is probably it. I think it was Lebron's third or

And there's something probably too that where there's more of a maybe not more, but a different thought process behind when you're performing and I'm not just talking about the eighty two games. I'm talking about in the media, at events, at All Star events, you know, doing different pickup get whatever it may be, the Dru League, like all of these things.

You may.

Have a different calculus nowadays than you did before. Where like you said, the All Star Game was just the best pickup game in the world. It didn't have to be like a manufactured thing where we're trying to you know, we're trying to bring meaning to it. And I think some of it's unfair to put that all on Lebron. I think the fact that we're we're looking to Lebron to save the All Star Game is a problem with

Of basket if that. Man if that and is like, do you think that's going to fix the All Star Game?

No, It's why I was saying, And you know what, the Lebron Let's stay in the Lebron space for a moment before I do my All Star Game die trivy Ken, Kevin Hart making fun of Shaq's turtleneck for thirty minutes while the players are getting tight on I'm.

Like, what Damian Lillard letting a guy win a three point content? Like, what exactly are we doing here?

I mean, but the Lebron conversation is interesting because I honestly wonder how his peers view him, how his fellow players view him, because there are two sides of this coin.

Number one, you could view.

Him really as the kind of pioneer of player empowerment, you know, realizing that as the superstar player, the power is in your hand.

Now, Lebron wasn't the first.

There have been other players in the past and pro basketball that have kind of forced their way to bigger market.

Shack did it with the Lakers.

We could all go all the way back with Kareem Abdul Jabbar wanting out of Milwaukee to live in Los Angeles. But Lebron was kind of the first one that was

We're all good.

Like, I think what Lebron did over the weekend was innately extremely selfish in my opinion, and.

That's where I do wonder how that process played out. Because Lebron will play the politics game. That's one of the way the ways I don't really have his back is that when it comes to the power game of the NBA, he will exert his power on other players, on execs, on coaches that he's not getting along with. And hey, when you're a billionaire, you're one of the most powerful people in sports, you kind of get that

Or it was Anthony Davis, He's like no right, or.

Like a player that he doesn't get along with. That's something Lebron would do because it is as much as I back him as a player, as a as a guy that you know, when it comes to petty beefs and stuff, he has a long memory. So I do wonder if something like that played into it. Now, to be clear, I'm also not going to like complain about how bad the All Star Game was, while then also being like, oh, the sanctity of the All Star Game.

But tell that to Norman Powell, right right, And actually that might be the name. And Norman Powell is not a maximuney guy. He does just fine, but he's had a great year. And look, as I said a little bit earlier, it's probably just and I will certainly admit this because I am old enough to remember attending All Star games that were awesome and being wildly entertained by All Star games. They were taken seriously by the best

That's what this entire thing is all about.

It's not like TNT wanted to air horse during COVID or ESPN wanted to air horse during COVID. They called the NBA and said, look, I know that this is chaotic. I know it's a workstoppage. We have holes in our programming to fill. You have to give us something. And if you watched what happened on Sunday with the format and the timing, to Porter's point about the nonsense that went on compared to the actual basketball that was played, it's like the Emperor has no close stuff.

We can see what you're doing.

Okay, you're forcing these guys to sit for twenty minutes at a time while you have these weird bits going on so you can appease sponsors, and you have all these commercial breaks, and the loser ultimately is the consumer, and honestly only the consumer and the NBA I don't think gives a rip. So there were some fun moments here or there. I think this is a weekend that might be the latest thing that simply is a sunk cost, and it's time to admit that maybe it even just goes away.

I mean, I don't know how many people watch it.

The All Star Game we had here two years ago, despite the bravado from some local folk.

Was the lowest rated All Star game in the history of the game.

I have not seen the overnight splits for the All Star Game or Saturday Night.

I can't imagine they were very high.

I mean, it was going up against the SNL fifty reunion, we have the four Nations face off. College basketball is gaining steam, but mostly I mean, unless you are just a diehard MBA fan and there is some nostalgia like there is for me, I can't imagine you were very tuned in f at all. All Right, for the second time in four months, conference leaders from the SEC and the Big Ten are meeting in person. Okay, so there's a lot to get to with this. They're talking about

Before we catch a break.

Want to tell you about my friends at Ogden Clinic Hadley Dermatology.

Now here's the deal, both Porter and myself.

Porter, during the summer months when the weather's warm, what is your typical routine on a weekend when the weather's really nice.

I'm out all the time, getting baked right, right and then yes, clear whoa. You know, that's none of my business, but I'm not judging.

It's on PTO types. Fair enough.

Porter will roll in to do a show on a Monday looking like he just laid out for forty eight hours because he's a hiker. And like, if you're like me, you play a lot of golf when the weather's warm, or you hike with the dog, you walk with the dog, or you're outside, you're getting sun It's very good for you, sunshine, vitamin D and such. However, as a result of living in the climate that we live in, we actually lead the country per capita with skin cancer diagnoses, which I

Of laser treatments. So pool season coming soon.

If you're the guy that takes his shirt off and you look like a gorilla, you get twenty five percent off laser treatments. Hair wherever else on your body you want remove, that's your business on mine. They offer anti aging, body sculping injectables and more so botox. We did a twenty percent off special for Valentine's Day. Take advantage of this though. It's a great offer, get checked out kind of know where you're at. Give them a call at eight oh one sixty five seven five sixty sixty four.

Through the high school years, So give them a call.

Our good friends at Ogden Clinic Hadley See, I think Allison Chains has aged fine, you know, excuse me, I'm not speaking for the entire catalog. Matt Brown might be close to my age. I think I'm older than Matt. I feel like I'm older than Matt. But you know what this, It feels like your dad at some point may have gone through an Allison Chains phase.

Is that?

Is that?

Is that fair? They were in there for sure.

He was like the more early eighties hair metal, and then there was a bunch of bands that tried to like keep that going, kind of as the grunge and alternative thing kind of blew up, so that they were in there for sure.

Let's ask our guy Matt Brown. I'm guessing Matt that I'm older than you. But my producer, Porter, who I love, is a child. He is a young and so he asked me, Yeah, he asked me a very fair and honest question.

I was very introspective.

How has the music that I loved from the nineties aged?

So?

How would you answer that question?

Matt? Oh, that that's a really that's a really good question.

It is.

Yeah, I don't know that much of it has aged all that well. It's funny. I was having this exact same conversation with my wife a couple of days ago. Like, one of the commercially biggest bands of the nineties was Blues Traveler.

Yeah, who's like.

Now doomed to play like the Canton, Ohio State Fair Circuit and if you play run around I think on the radio and I were like, what is this? What am I doing? I mean, there's a couple of bands that are going to be on the Classic Rocks, you know, circuit for our grandkids. But I think there's a lot more tumble wombles in there than maybe we might care to admit.

Blues Traveler, as Porter points out, as an excellent example, because Matt I am old enough to remember nineteen ninety four, I was at a music festival where Blues Traveler was the open Excuse me, the closing act at a festival have included Fish and Dave Matthews band Blues Traveler was the closer.

I am almost positive I went to a concert where Dave Matthews opened for Blues Traveler and not the other way around.

That sounds right. Yeah, it was Horde Festival, that's right. It was Fish, Blues Traveler, widespread Panic and Blues Traveler was the main act. That That is an excellent one, my friend. I'll give you a lot of credit for that one. That's a good one.

Yeah, I'll have to think about this a little bit more. I mean, like, there's there's some classics there, there are some bands that went to the Hall of Fame, but there was a lot of forgettable moments. I mean, people forget this. But if you were around in the nineties and early two thousands for like nine months, and I'm guessing in Utah it was probably a little bit longer

That's what it was.

These things happened, That's that's what it was. It was the Swingers call and kid. Swingers is a movie with Vince Vaughan. Okay, everybody, calm down, Okay, just get your heads out of the gutter. Great movie, but that ultimately launched the big bag Voodoo Dad, he's excellent.

Pull Now you're on fire today already.

Well, I listen. I may or may not have been somebody who was swept into that too, right, because if you know, if you're like one of the nine LDS kids in Columbus, Ohio.

And you're like, oh, I will for.

Some inexplicable reason, I already learned how to swing dance and after on Wednesday Night, mutual Now I can finally participate in popular culture and that poof it's gone.

Yeah, there were yep, I remembered it.

Two LDS kids in my high school, me and my sister, and so I was able to introduce a lot of my classmates to the Lion King soundtrack and the Saturday's Warrior soundtrack.

Now that was my addition to the music scene.

Sure, sure.

Yeah, I know, it's amazing that we weren't more popular if your kids, oh.

Well said speaking of the LDS folk and our friends down south. Tom Homo has announced that, after twenty years on the job, Matt he is electing to find something else to do with his time. And I've got to say I've often said this, and I don't know if being the athletic director at by U is the hardest job in college athletics administration, but it's among it's among

Yeah, it's funny I wrote about this. I think I think earlier this week that I the longer I do this job, the more hesitant I am to publicly proclaim somebody to be a good athletic director, because I feel like I've been burned by this a couple of times, and like Oh, this guy made a couple of good hires, and he returns my phone calls he must be a good ad, and then he ends up like a gigantic scandal, like six months after he gets the plaque at NACTA.

I agree with you, and he's always been good to me in the opportunities I've had to interview him and affair as well. So I think BYU lost a good one. So during the press conference to announce it was very reverend. It was a very reverend press conference to announce that

So I'm told it is a national search, and I could be wrong here, but this is the first time that I can recall since I've been doing this professionally that BYU has retained the services of like a third

Jet Blues who?

Because this role is changing so much. Right it's not as much about hiring the best baseball coach as it is now navigating some really complicated business and legal realities.

And that's exactly where I wanted to go next, because this is a job that is a different ask than it was twenty years ago. And yeah, you know, you could go over a litany the guy who I think they I don't know if Brian Rolapp answers the phone, because he's the CEO of the National Football League, he essentially is Goodell's number two. I think if Rolap stays with the NFL. He's going to be the next commissioner, and therefore I don't know that he even interviews for it.

Well?

And I would say that the I think the ask for being the AD at BYU is different than being the AD at Utah, although both of those jobs have changed very significantly over the last five or six years, in part because of some of the changing finances. Right you know, DYU, as I understand, it is not a place where you're going to be able to, you know,

I had breakfast with a gentleman about three months ago who is a pretty heavy hitter in our market, and we discussed the dynamic of, you know, where the schools are at locally with their collectives, and he told me that his understanding is bringing me on. Right now has nine seven figure donors, while the University of Utah only has two. Now, that was about three or four months ago. I don't know what's changed, But do you have a grasp or an accurate understanding on just how that collective

Yeah, And it's hard because so many of these things get you know, cut through telephone, and it's the private institutions and you don't have to you don't get the same stuff you do from the irs as you might for other places. The folks that I trust has said, Hey, you know, there's this kind of meme around the internet that b what US basketball budget is just from the youth, it's just just from Ryan Smith, and that isn't true. Whether it's nine seven big donors or four big donors

I can't speak to.

Where the elite heavy hitter donor activity is happening in Utah. I think that that was a school that did a really good job of engaging their corporate community, did a really good job of engaging some of their donors who are maybe not dropping seven figures, but are comfortable dropping high five figures, and you need a lot of those two.

All right, So moving off of BYU but staying in the space and thank you for doing this. If I could quote Kendrick Lamar, not like us, because there's no way I would dig through dozens and dozens of twenty twenty three NIL collective nine nineties.

But Matt, you did that. So what did you learn through this exercise?

You know, you can go whatever direction you want, just kind of a big picture question. You wrote on this just a few days ago, and you know you've learned about how these collectives grew or shrank to your point, and how they're paying athletes. It is a topic that all college athletic fans are interested in.

What did you learn as you kind of undertook this exercise?

Yeah, and so for those for folks who are listening here right, an NIL collective can be set up as a nonprofit or a for profit or not for profit. And if you're a nonprofit, if you're a five o' one C three, you have to file at nine to ninety, which is a form that any any reporter or any JOQ public person can examine where you have to declare how much money you brought in and where you spent a lot of it, and who you're paying. One of Utah's main collective for fiscal year twenty twenty three, the

It was.

It was a bigger fund than than what Purdue was reporting. It was. It was bigger than what some of the other schools in the Big twelve are reporting, which it which speaks to some of that donor activity.

All right, excuse me, moving over to a story you and I talked about and the Biden administration they handed down the Title nine guidance, which at the time indicated nil payments would follow under the Title nine guidelines. And you were kind of the first guest we had on the show to talk about the potential roll back once the Trump administration took over.

And it's not just that, is it.

It's the rescinding the National Lation National Labor Relations Memorandum viewing college athletes as employees. And then there's the Title nine stuff as well that's been rolled back. So walk us through this. What does it mean? What do we need to know? About this map.

Yeah, let's try to translate this into like non policy dorc language here. Right right before the Biden administration left the White House, their Department of Education put out a memo that said, hey, you know, based on this case law, based on how Title nine has traditionally been interpreted, we believe that the House Settlement revenue sharing needs to be

Probably going to be confused for a few more weeks.

So moving over into this space, while kind of staying in the same general area, you were one of the first that I heard say that you are now skeptical that college football will eventually land on this pro model that we've all pontificated on for a number of years, and very smart college football media members like yourself right

No, I think where I am right now is very uncertain. I completely understand the it's inevitable argument, and a lot of that centers on not the White House and not Congress necessarily, but the court system. Where a world where you are directly distributing revenued athletes and what they are doing and practice resembles an employment relationship. More and more that that courts would eventually rule that big time football players and big time basketball players are employees and have

Uh.

They've already fired all the people that that that said that they were ruling in favor of the college athletes to begin with, we're also moving towards the world here where Republicans have unified control of of of the legislature. And the guy that's most invested in college sports right now, and and who's going to lead a committee is Ted Cruz, and Ted Cruz is already signaled, Hey, I am I'm

Dovetails are to the final question for today, For the second time or four months, the powerbrokers from the SEC and the Big ten are getting together to discuss what they want this entire thing to look like moving forward. They'll discuss the House for NCAA settlement, future governance, and then of course the CFP format, scheduling, partners ships and such.

We're in the Big twelve footprints.

What do you make of this continued momentum moving in the direction of those two conferences essentially calling all the shots.

Yeah, I think if I was a fan of a Big twelve institution, I'd be deeply concerned about this, because I don't know if there's a really effective way that the Big twelve and ACC can can fight some of these changes. The idea that hey, the last college football playoff format was built around a conference alignment world that doesn't exist anymore. I think that has some merit. And I don't think the Big Ten and the SEC demanding multiple automatic bids has any merit. I think that that's

All right, man, Where can people go find all that work that ultimately allows you to talk for twenty minutes about things and none of us fully understand.

You can find the Extra Points newsletter at extra Points mb dot com. I have a story coming out tomorrow about changes in the video game group licensing space, which I understand are of interest too many fans. I've also got some original reporting coming on in a day or two about the US Soccer Federation potentially trying to take over college soccer, and more about what's happening here in New Orleans. To find at Extra Points MV dot com. You can find me on the internet at Matt BROWNEP.

You're the man, Matt. Thanks for the time, buddy. We'll chat soon, Okay, always my pleasure.

Be well friends.

All Right, Matt Brown, I'm telling you it is the best college football newsletter if you're trying to understand the landscape and the business of what's happening. I read it every time. He post one at Matt Brown EP is where you find him. We got a little duet between Pitbull and Cindy Lapper rolling in on a Tuesday afternoon.

What did you do to us today? What is this Dave?

That's all disco song? It's called Let's All Chant by Michael Zagerband.

Is that one of the tracks you played when you were at disco?

Dated when I was in.

The Wax back in the late seventies. That was a hit, didn't I hit?

Was it DJ Dave? What was your DJ d It was just a dave?

Yeah?

I worked at a couple of clubs locally.

The front page twenty first South Broadway over here?

Okay, Broadway?

Enough?

Is that? What where the movie theater is now?

No?

No, no, sorry, it's on main Street.

It was called the Broadway and it's in a down it's now just an office downstairs. But we had a night club, disco in there. What was the name of the first club you said? The front page, twenty first South ninth East. Okay, now, I think a Walgreene had a big lit dance floor.

It was awesome. Was it really lit? Oh?

Yeah?

Was it lit like the kids say lit? Or was there like literally light?

No?

It was literally light like Saturday night fever. Okay, that's the same thing. I thought, you're trying to be happy.

No, it was.

It was a lit flooring and uh man, if that DJ Booth could talk.

Okay, that's enough, let's move on.

Dave Fox Liven Studio two pelotons too, Ammys, Dave, how are you?

I'm doing great?

How easy?

How was your President's Day weekend? It was good.

I was honoring the decorum, decency, and honesty of the highest office in a lands.

That's what was supposed to be on President Day, right. Yeah, I love that. I do the same thing.

I just I spent about an hour and I just meditate or I'm all or how honored we are to have what we have in this country.

You don't strike me as a meditator. Okay, maybe I didn't meditate, that's.

What I thought.

But you definitely didn't work because the goat. I didn't.

The goat was on the show last night, Yes he was. How was our guy, Mikaelic? He's doing great, Adams Sue. We chatted briefly this morning and he's doing well. He's doing really well.

How much have got NBA All Star weekend? Did you consume?

Oh my gosh, well, so, as you know, the Fox Household. Every Sunday night, the entire family comes over. So there was a big debate do we watch the Saturday Night Live, which I just recorded and watched it later, or then we had a handful that wanted to watch the NBA thing.

So what was I reading?

Though?

Maybe you could help me with this.

I want to say in the three hour broadcast, I read somewhere that there was like a total of thirty eight minutes of basketball.

I don't even think that, maybe not even that much.

Yeah, it was, in my view, awful, but a couple of family members wanted to see it, and so they sat through that, and it is what it. It's like they keep trying to figure out ways to fix it. Maybe it's just time to move on.

So okay, let me kind of kick the tires with you as far as where you're at with the whole topic, because ultimately, I definitely sound like the old dude that misses the old All Star games, but you're certainly a guy that's covered sports in the market. Ninety three was really cool. We had the NBA All Star Game here.

But to your point, I'm kind of now resigned.

To the fact that these dudes don't give a rip no matter where it's played, no matter what the format is, they just don't care.

And if you don't care, guess what, we don't care. Yeah, here's the problem. Today's athlete has been enabled. I mean you could barely get them to care during the regular season, much less in an All Star game. Think about, you know, load management? What did I hear a comment the other day from Michael Jordan just laughing at the idea of load management?

How old is he? Retired?

Forty years old, and he played every single game with Washington. Granted, as you know, skills have diminished, but these athletes are enabled now and they rest for anything. Well, they're sure, is he not going to go put their all into an All Star Game? Back in the nineties, And you're right now both being that guy in ninety three, every game meant something, or at least to the athletes. They played every game, and they play in even the All

But the thought that.

You know, one of the teams is a bunch of kids who really aren't All Stars was just kind of weird, Like, does you know Zach Edie and Dalton connect and Keyantay George deserve to be playing on All Star Sunday Night.

I don't know, it just seemed weird. It's just a mess. I don't see any solution to it.

I like, what the NBA or excuse me, the NHL is doing with that four nations thing. Yeah, yeah, that's that's kind of cool. That's been really cool.

I don't know if the NBA has the answer to it, and look, they have a theoretical answer to it, because because I'll get people like, hey, what's your preferred format? My preferred format is a basketball game played by the best basketball players in the world who actually care.

That's my preferred format. But I do think.

There could be a little bit of juice with this international versus domestic players, the international pool versus the NBA players.

It has been tried before, but this is different.

You can make an argument right now, shake Gilges, Alexander Nikola, Jokic, Jannis Nbid when he's healthy, obviously Luca, like five or six of the top seven or eight players in pro

Yeah, that's what I think. I do think there's anything you can do to get these guys to care.

And even the international team, they're still NBA players. Same look at Yokachi doesn't want to play. He didn't want to be at the All Star Game, right, And then here's this doesn't help either when you have, you know, the face of the league, Lebron shows up the day before and says I'm not playing. Not the day before, a few hours before the game, You're right, a few hours. I mean, it's just stunning. But again, it all gets back to being enabled. It's it's their world. We're just

First of all, it's just a bad look when you have not announced that you're not going to play, and so the general public is watching intros and then suddenly they say, okay from the Lakers Lebron James, and he's in street clothes and you're like, dude, what are you doing. But ultimately, if you're one of Lebron's peers, I do not like that All Star games are in contracts, that the stipulation of if you make an All Star team, then.

You're gonna yeah, what's the point.

You're going to trigger a mechanism of a bonus. I don't like that they're in the contracts. But Dave, they're in the contracts.

Okay. So what Lebron just did.

Is take two hundred and three hundred K out of the pocket of somebody. Instead of saying, hey, I'm not playing, Okay, we'll name your replacement and then this player can get paid, Lebron selfishly took the spotlight for himself and just decided to sandbag it.

I thought it was a really selfish, bad look for me.

Maybe that's getting back to the contract idea is just to word it that you get this bonus if you play in the All Star Game, not if you're named an NBA All Star. That might and but again that doesn't solve the All Star I'm just talking about your You mentioned the contract thing that might that might fix that.

My point is if Lebron said I'm not playing and they name his replacement, the replacement player gets his check.

That's what I'm saying. That's that's the way that contract should be worded. But that's again that's not gonna happen because it's it's their world, their money.

I do just pay him. I do think we saw some fun Keyante moments.

I don't know if there's anything that, Like I asked Tim McMahon earlier, like, is there anything he can take from the experience, And Tim didn't really think so. I mean, just to just to know that you were named in a group that has the best young players in pro basketball and you advanced to play on Sunday against the

Yeah, and he had a nice first game. I believe first game he had ten and the three in each of the next two. I think when you're there in the moment, and you know this because you were referring to ninety three and then the one we had here just a couple of years ago, there is something cool about being in the moment there, especially for the younger players. Obviously the older players they're done with it, you know,

Hit the game winner. You know, that allowed them to advance.

So look, we're a market that's used to seeing our players play in the game and also participate. We have Dunk Contest champions with Donovan and Griff I think Jeff won the three point Contest one year we've had all Stars and to only see one rep.

Don't forget Jeremy in the dunk content. Jeremy Evans.

I'm just I'm shaking my head because every year we hear this thing, like, hey, Jeremy Evans, he was able to get two more inches on his vert I'm like, did is he shooting free throws? Did he learn how to dribble and pass?

Like?

Thanks for the vert update on Jeremy, but he's getting jumpers up.

But but yeah, it was just.

Kind of odd, you know, for the second straight year to have a very minimal representation for our local.

Team and the dunk contest winner isn't even in the NBA. He's a good dunker though, least Mac is fun.

Yeah, but put him in dunk well.

Look, everyone Jordan competed or guys Larry Nance Well, and here's the.

Other issue, Dave, Like, in my opinion, if you're gonna grab Mac McClung, who's it good.

He's a G League MVP. I mean, it's not like he's a bad player.

You can go on YouTube and watch highlights of professional dunkers that are wild and NBA players have never touched. So if you're gonna let Mac dunk, go, get all these pro dunkers and let's have a little fun, why not? Because your point about so it wasn't as Jordan, like Kobe participated, he wanted to dunk contest.

Vince Carter was an awesome player, and they were great dunkers. There were great dunkers.

I could keep going, Aaron Gordon, Zach Levine like, but Muggsy Bogues, I mean, how incredible was that Bogues, Dominique Wilkins, all fifty like all NBA seventy fifth anniversary team. And now these dudes are so scared to look dumb, and I think that starts with Lebron But like Zion Williamson, Jah Moran, and I can keep going. There are really good players that are really good dunkers, but they don't want to be embarrassed.

It's like this weird, soft dumb approach. They're like Prima Donna's.

But it all gets back to the whole weekend, and at the end of the day, I think, yeah, I think you made the best point of all. I'm guessing there are a number of those guys that are excited to be a part of it only because they have some big bonus coming to them.

Other than that they could do without.

It well, and the money is so big now doesn't even motivate them and try hard.

That's very true.

That's why I don't think you could pay them spence because how much could you pay them? They would make what they are already making worth it, No.

Like one hundred million.

If you play hard, like you know, the money is already astronomical crazy. And I'm for the players getting their fair share of the pie. But if you're going to show up and mail it in because you know your check is coming anyway, then we're watching a product that's being run like a fortune five hundred business and not an entertainment product.

And I do think that's an issue.

Yeah, and you refer to some of the you know, I had another game pop into my head. There was an All star game was in Phoenix. I don't remember the year. Carl Malone, I want to say, game winning shot, not for his team, and he jumps up and I think he accidentally tips it away. And then afterwards one of the guys that's doing the play the being interviewed says, I think I think Carl was point shaven.

Oh really, I do not recall this. It was a game in Phoenix.

They were kidding around, but they the point is it went down to the last second.

Yeah, and they fought to the bitterer.

You know what, the game in Utah ninety three that went to overtime, I believe, yeah, I know it was. And that's just that just shows you how far we have drifted away from the competitive nature of that game. And look, the NFL finally realized that that game stinks and what they're doing instead isn't much better.

But I just I don't see a solution to these things.

Baseball, you know, you show up, you get one at bat, but the main you know, so I was, you know, I don't do a lot of combative radio, right.

But when somebody says, well, what about the Pro Bowl? What about the Major League Baseball All Star Game? The Pro Bowl was never good, No, and the NBA All Star Game was good once upon a time. That's the difference. Like the Pro Bowl has always been horrible, the NBA All Star Game for thirty forty years was awesome, and

The whole weekend's fun for fans to show up when it was here. It was cool.

Go see all the great displays and that at the Salpeals. But it's the game's just it's brutal.

All right, We'll end with the little college football before we get there. Twenty eight games left for the Utah Jazz. The playoff pushes on. It's very much not so oh.

There's a playoff push, but it's a playoff for the lot It's a lottery push.

What do you look? What's exciting about the final twenty eight for you?

Okay, Spence, Here's what I think, And maybe I'm going to be wrong, but this seems to me like this is the time where you're going to start to see players sitting more. They did the same thing last year if you remember. And then guys that are never going to be in the league, like Kenny Lofton became an All Star right overnight because he played so well in

Now?

You Now you've harped on this for the last two or three years.

The problem is the Jazz front loaded their wins and by the time this time of year rolled around, it was too late to seriously get into tanking. And what do they end up with a tenth you know, number ten pick something like that.

The draft kid can't play exactly.

You are this close to getting a top three or top four, and there's three or four really good players out there. We all know Cooper Flags the Grand Price. I just don't think you run the risk of not finishing. And when I say not finishing, I mean, you know, sitting down some of these players. Look at this next six game homestand there's two games that I think are almost impossible for the Jazz to lose, Pelicans and maybe Trailblazers.

They're a ton of players.

So my I'm of the thought that over that last twenty eight that you just mentioned, at some point you're going to start to see guys like you know, Mark and and Section still hurt. But Clarkson whoever John Collins start to sit out. I don't know if they rest the younger guys because they really need even more time, you know, like call your in that. But that's what I think is gonna happen. Maybe I'll be wrong, but

No, I think in a way they've been doing that. But to the point, like you've got to I think you got to step it up. You've got to run through the tape. Yeah, you've got to finish what you started.

There may be a point where you hear the shutdownward. Yeah, I mean, at this point, why are you playing anyone?

I guess when you know what the deal is it Look, I keep using this line what the Jazz are doing is the right thing to do.

But it sucks. It just does if you're if you're a fan, it's tough.

I mean, I think a lot of jazz fans simply want to go to a jazz game, eat a hot dog, and drink a beer with their friends and go home. You know, like they're fine with the deal because it's winter here. It's cold, and people just want to kind of go watch a game. Maybe they don't give a rip about exactly how competitive the team is, but the diehard Jazz fans really badly want to see a competitive team have to really have had a frustrating year.

And I really only think this is they only need to do it. I know we've talked about another year of tanking. I think this is it. You do it now, get in that top three, maybe even number one, and then you're off and running.

That's my opinion. Have you seen aj debounce a play?

Yes, I know, I know, but I don't think you can survive another year of this. These these kids are anxious to get going. It'd be a guarante don't.

If it was a guarantee that you get Cooper flag this year and aj Debounca next year.

I think you do it if you could guarantee it. But you know you can't. You cannot, all right, Dave, Before I set you loose.

Since you and I last spoke after twenty years on the job, Tom Homo is a very nice vacation. He did a hell of a job in a spot where just that job. The athletic director for BYU has to be among the hardest jobs in college athletics administration. You have to align yourself with the message of the institution while running a department that is probably least aligned with

Give me your thoughts for a set. You absolutely great guy, hard workers, you said. I don't think people really understand how difficult it was to navigate the era of independence. I know he had two or three assistants who were strictly in charge of helping with scheduling.

When you're in a league, you know this. What are you looking for?

You're looking for two or three non league games, not when you're in an independence And he did a masterful job of that great person. I've known him well for many, many years, and I'm happy for or you know, whatever led to this and whatever's next for him and his wife and their family.

I think it's great.

Did you attend the press conference for the station or we sent the goat? Oh why didn't you go?

It was too early? All right, I had to work late that TV gold tonight. What have we got?

Well, it is solid gold. Because you know what we've got tonight.

We've got talking Jazz with the one and only Spence check its who will join us? And you're gonna hear I'll play a little snippet if you give me something good on two News at ten. Oh wow, I'll do my best. Then, well, I thought it's at ten thirty five. Other than that, the actual show is at ten thirty five on KMYU Television and we stream it as well.

Dave, great to see my friend. We'll see a few hours. Okay, thanks man.

Two pelotons too, Emmys. Dave Fox wrapping up the show for a Tuesday. We got Utah Women's Hoops and I taking on Oklahoma State six forty five pre game seven o'clock tip. Final segment of the show brought to you by friends at Advanced Window Products. Check them out eighth one eighty five zero ninety one hundred eight or online at Advanced windows dot com. It's a new year and the New Window Special, which is twenty five hundred dollars off when you purchase ten windows or more. Of course

Dude.

It's wild to me. And you know what, the ratings are actually pretty good. COVID did a lot of things in a lot of different directions, but it is wild what it did to the game of golf.

It's It's definitely been something that I've struggled to even remotely have an interest in. And I am someone who, regardless of the tournament, if Tiger woulds is swinging a club on a golf course. I am not only watching Spence. I'm up on Thursday morning watching right and this is his thing and I can't get into it, and a lot of it, and I think most of it has to do.

With the simulator thing I was watching.

I think the first night they had it, Tiger hit a shot on the simulator and it was it was right down the middle. It looked like a good swing, and everyone of the building was like, what happened because the shot went clear off. It was a glitch in the game.

Is what it was.

But it affected the score and they just kind of acted like it didn't happen. There are people betting on these things. There is there is an element to sports that I cannot get past once it turns over to like sot machine, video game, computer involvement, all of the above. And it's the reason I never could get into like streaming video game stuff. Clearly it's for some people, not me.

Tiger Wood's out of the sand. Oh he blew it. That's weird to see Tiger blow like that. So yeah, pro golfers on a simulator, if you're into that. The NBA is back on Wednesday. We got a little college hoops tonight with BYU taking on Kansas of course as a reference, Utah Women taking on Okay State. I'll be on TV tonight with Dave Fox ten thirty five. We call it talking Jazz. All right, Porter, let's get out of here. What comes our way? On a Wednesday edition of the program.

On a Wednesday edition of The Drive, the NBA Daily Assist with Zach Harper comes your way, as we do each and every week with our guy Neil Smith stops by for behind the Glass, the latest in the NHL UHC, and of course the Four Nations face off. Bill Riley will stop by talking ute's latest, probably some college basketball and maybe some offseason football with the spring schedule, the

All right good stuff ck in studio on a match day for RSL By the Way special Thank you too, Roxy Bernstein, Tim McMahon, Matt Brown, and Dave Fox Benning the sound you made miss from the show website c ESPN seven hundred sports dot com. Our podcast page is called The Drive with Spence check Its that's available wherever you gets your shows. If you have a minute tonight while you're hanging out watching pro golfers hit on a simulator, give us a rating and a review, say nice things,